Aprilia has relaunched aprilia.com with a much needed redesign, complete with media richness. For some time now Aprilia has been making beautiful and stylish bikes, without lending the same attention to detail to the rest of their corporate branding. The new site is bold, red, and clearly designed by someone who spends a lot of time in Apple’s iTunes.
Source: Aprilia.com
Looking good Aprilia, now call me when you have your supply chain figured out.
MotoStudent competition is a competition created by the Moto Engineering Foundation in Spain. While the scope is Spanish and European for now, it has promise to expand to encompass schools from across the globe. The goal of the competition is to have student design and build motorcycles in a fashion similar the Formula SAR competitions in American colleges, which are sponsored by marque companies who use the events to recruit top talent engineers and future employees.
Source: Motostudent via The Kneeslider
Have AutoCAD, will design motorcycles for food.
Ducati has added a flash intro to their site telling of a “Streetfighter” to be released this Monday, November 3rd. We can only speculate on what this bike could be, considering the wraps on the new Monster 1100 is already out. Could this be the rumored 1098 streetfighter to help stave off the likes of the Aprilia Tuono, Benelli TnT, and other naked sportbikes?
UPDATED: Only time will tell what the real bike looks like, but read more to see some artistic “opinions” of what the naked livery could look like.
The 2009 season has started. Well…sort of. The champagne only stopped flowing moments ago for Valentino Rossi, but work for the 2009 season waits for no man. With more rider and team shakeups than the Sunday morning Times word search, the 2009 MotoGP teams (sans Tech3) have begun shaking out their new bikes, and for some, their new riders.
Read more after the jump.
Well that’s it folks, the MotoGP season is over. Not to spoil it, but Randy de Puniet was not the come-from-behind points winner for the rider’s cup. Click on the jump to see every dirty spoiler.
Recalls appear to be the order of the weekend. This does give us the opportunity to examine the ways in which different bike manufacturers take it upon themselves to make this sport just that much more interesting for us. Ducati, always being the fashion-minded, chose death by fire, which of course would match perfectly the red and white livery they adorn their bikes in. Buell, thought it fit to decapitate its riders, which is also fitting since must have lost your mind to ever purchase the baby Harley in the first place. Not to be shown up, BMW in a very German fashion is going with just instant death in no particular fashion. This does bring up interesting thoughts of graphic video footage of wheels coming undone and bodies flying over hay bails, but that’s just my imagination. Check after the jump for full details on this expedited suicide.
This article will be completely devoid of any comments about Italian reliability. Resisting that temptation like Adam resisted the apple from Eve, it would appear that there might be a teeny-tiny-ity-bity problem with the Ducati Desmosedici’s fuel tank drain and breather hose.
In 2007 Anthony West replace Jaques Olivier on the Factory Kawasaki MotoGP team. After this Sunday at Valencia, Anthony’s year and a half will end. West has had a lackluster season this year, currently sitting 18th in the point standings with 50 points, which has caused many to call for his replacement. Italian Marco Melandri will join John Hopkins on the Kawasaki team for the 2009 season as West’s replacement.
Buell has issued a recall on some of its 2008 & 2009 XB12XP and XB12XT motorcycles, citing problems with the windshield mounting nuts. The exact models affected are the: 2008-2009 XB12XT & 2009 XB12XP.
Apparently the windshields may become dislodged and allow the windshield to either strike or distract the rider while the vehicle is being ridden at a high speed. This could result in a crash, which could cause injury or death to the rider. This is only affecting 624 bikes out on the road, but a windshield to the head is not to be taken to lightly.
Affected bikes will have to brought into the shop where dealers will remove the windshield’s two rubber mounted nuts and install two new fastener assemblies.
The recall is expected to begin on or about October 27, 2008. Owners may contact Buell at 1-414-342-4080. The NHTSA Campaign Number is 08V538000.
Source: The Kneeslider
Our poor friends down under are about to get a further crackdown on what can and cannot be done out on the asphalt. The Aussies are set to put into place a series of roadside microphones to crack down on offending and unrestricted exhaust pipes. Similar murmurs are also being made back on the Queen’s Island.
The fully automated systems have been in development for the last three years and are now set to be rolled out in several states and territories down under. According to a report in Australia’s The Newspaper, the camera-based system utilises a set of microphones to record noise levels and, when the set threshold is exceeded, a ten second video is stored and a ticket automatically generated. Apparently the machine can hold data for up to 10,000 tickets before it needs to be reset.
Source: PistonHeads via RSVzone
There are rumors that soon even thinking about a wheelie will be illegal. Ok, George Orwell…you win.
I can imagine how the converstion between Wayno and Stevo went (well they are from Far North Queensland). That is Stephen Rothwell and Wayne Wright from The Two-Stroke Shop. It’s safe to say it ended with “Let’s build the bike that should have been”.
They set about getting a 500cc two-stroke built to slip into Apilia’s RS250 frame. The RS250 is an excellent bike. It’s good looking, has great handling and will stop on a dime. But! There’s always a but. In standard trim it’s powered by a Suzuki RGV250 engine. Not that the engine is all that lacking and can still scare most people, this bike with a 500cc 2-stroker now becomes a capable weapon ready to tackle modern 4-stroke sport bikes.
